CLARION, Pa. – A balanced attack led the Clarion University women's volleyball team past East Stroudsburg 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-18) Friday afternoon at Tippin Gymnasium.
"I think we did some really good things in free ball transition," said Clarion head coach
Jennifer Mills. "They were a tough serving team. I think we were a little flat with regards to energy and that was the only thing that we kept bringing up during timeouts."
Taylor Braunagel led the Golden Eagles offense with 12 kills while hitting .571. Freshman
Catherine Ferragonio added eight kills and 10 digs while
Abbey Cox also had a strong match with eight kills hitting .636.
"I think she did great," said Mills of Ferragonio on the match. "I think there was some nerves in the first game. She's an outside hitter by nature. She hits outside in the gym all the time but it her the first actual match at that. I think once she got going she got a lot more comfortable."
Laura Subject set up the Clarion offense with 34 assists while also adding five digs.
Morgan Seybold led the defense with 16 digs.
Clarion, which improves to 17-2 overall, 9-1 in the PSAC West, trailed 6-3 before using a 12-2 run to take a 15-8 lead behind three kills from Braunagel and two a piece from Ferragonio and Cox. The Golden Eagles finished out the set strong to win it 25-17. In the first set, Clarion hit .414 as a team finishing with 16 kills.
In the second set, East Stroudsburg (6-13, 2-9) pulled within one, 14-13, before Clarion took 11 of the final 14 points to close out the set.
"I think good teams can sustain a high level of energy in any match," said Mills. "We still need to work towards that."
In the third, Clarion jumped out to a 10-3 lead to gain control. The Warriors pulled within two points at 14-12 but the Golden Eagles closed out the match strong winning the third set 25-18.
"I think for the most part when we are consistent we are really tough to stop," said Mills. "It is just maintaining that energy level to make sure were not flying off the ball and doing technical things that were not used to doing."
After hitting .321 in the first set, the Golden Eagles held East Stroudsburg to a .059 hitting percentage in the second set and a .074 hitting percentage in the third.
Desiree Claxton led the Warriors with 10 kills while Abby Welch chipped in with five. Annabelle Charlton set up the offense with 13 set-assists while Erica Cunningham had eight. Maddie Hutchison led the East Stroudsburg defense with 11 digs.
The Golden Eagles return to action at 7:30 Friday when they will host Kutztown. Clarion also has a pair of matches on Saturday when it hosts West Chester at 10:00 AM and Cheyney at 6:00 as part of the PSAC Crossover at Clarion.
By Jonathan Hooke
